From: Phillip Smith <phillips@weatherbeeta.com.au>
To: pgsql-sql@postgresql.org
Subject: COPY to table with array columns (Longish)
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 11:38:59 +1000
Message-ID: <004701c68dc0$fc721510$9b0014ac@ITPhil> (raw)
Hi All,
Hope someone can help me - our main company system runs on Raining Data
PICK/D3 (if anyone familiar with it) which stores records in it's "tables"
as variable length items. Every item has a unique Primary Key (per table)
then each item can have a variable number of fields. These fields are
delimited by Char 254, then each field can have sub-values delimited by Char
253, then sub-sub-values delimited by Char 252.
Anyway, we are trying to export everything to Postgres for reporting and
querying etc (not to actually run the system.. Yet) and hasn't been a
problem so far - everything like stock and purchase orders, sales orders etc
can pretty easily be turned in to a flat file with standard number of
columns and consistent data. We truncate every table each night then import
that latest TSV export from D3 using a COPY command.
The problem arises with tables like our SYS table which store generic system
data, so one record could have 3 fields, but the next could have 300. The
only way I can work out how to export multi-valued data like this to
Postgres is to use an array column. So the table has 2 columns - the pkey
and a data array.
How do I get this imported to the truncated table each night? At the moment
I think my best option is to modify the export for the SYS table to call
PSQL and use standard SQL INSERT statements to directly insert it instead of
exporting to a flat file, then import to Postgres.
Thanks all,
-p
For those who are interested, or if it might help, here's a rough comparison
of the database structure of D3:
Windows = PICK/D3 = Postgres
Drive = Account = Database
Directory = File = Table
File = Item = Row
Line in text file = Attribute = Field
(none) = Value = Array Element (?)
(none) = Sub Value = (none?)
Phillip Smith
IT Coordinator
Weatherbeeta P/L
8 Moncrief Rd
Nunawading, VIC, 3131
AUSTRALIA
E. phillips@NO-SPAM.weatherbeeta.com.au
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To: pgsql-sql@postgresql.org
Cc: phillips@weatherbeeta.com.au
Subject: Re: COPY to table with array columns (Longish)
In-Reply-To: <004701c68dc0$fc721510$9b0014ac@ITPhil>
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